Fleetwood is proud to spotlight Andi Talley - our shining, but sadly-too-rare example of a woman leading day-to-day operations on the factory floor.
Driven to improve, driven to develop
Andi Talley isn’t just a big believer in continuous improvement as a means to improve manufacturing processes. She’s a big believer in continuous improvement on a human level.
Almost 25 years ago, Andi took a break from college short of a degree, returned home to West Michigan, and started building chairs for office furniture maker Herman Miller.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be tapped on the shoulder a few times,” Andi says. “I was invited to be part of a development program for continuous improvement trainers.” Right place, right time. It was the late 1990s when the lean manufacturing concepts introduced by Toyota were starting to take hold across many industries.
That put her on the path to preach the gospel of continuous improvement – looking for wasted motion, making sure machines and people are being used to their full potential, identifying and fixing small problems before they become big ones.
And in the process, she began to see that, “When it comes to leadership around continuous improvement, it’s not about telling people what to do. It’s about helping them think about what’s getting in their way and helping them come up with their own ideas to solve the problem. We never want lean manufacturing to be something that’s done TO people, it needs to be done WITH people.”
She was tapped again, for a trial run as an operations manager. A three-month assignment turned into six, then nine, then became permanent. Says Andi, “I saw I could still do the things I liked – including coaching and developing people – but I could also be more strategic.”
And then, in early 2021, a former colleague convinced Andi to join him at a small educational furniture company just down the road. Again – right place, right time.
Says Andi, “Fleetwood Furniture had been doing things the same way for a long time. Their processes were not lean, but there was new leadership and a new direction. I saw the opportunity to help grow the business and use my passion for continuous improvement, coaching, and development. And everything about the company, including its purpose, appealed to me.”
Fleetwood has been a Christ-centered company since its founding in 1955 and dedicates a significant portion of its profits to mission causes. It is also one of the oldest Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) companies in the United States.
Andi has day-to-day management responsibility for Fleetwood’s plant in Holland, MI. She says it feels great to know the team’s work is making the day better for students and teachers, and she’s discovered multiple benefits of moving to a smaller company.
“I connect on a regular basis with the rest of the Fleetwood leadership team, and we’re able to make quick decisions,” she says. “And I can proudly say that I know every employee’s name – even those who are working temp jobs in the factory – but since I arrived during the pandemic I had to relearn the faces once everyone took their masks off!”
Andi also plays a more active role in the development of her direct reports and the rest of the factory workforce.
“In my previous job, there were lots of different development programs run at the corporate level. Here, I have much more opportunity to influence the development and make sure it’s relevant for our needs,” Andi says. “We’ve just started a new program for team leaders without direct reports. They may not be people leaders but they’re very focused on problem-solving. How do we help them lead with influence?”
Andi says some of her own influence can be applied to new product development as well as to improving flow on the factory floor. At Herman Miller, she was a strong advocate for design that would be easier to manufacture and leave less room for error. Small decisions in design can have a significant impact on the people who are putting a chair together.
And in an ESOP company, everyone is paying attention. “Being 100% employee-owned creates better buy-in from the employees. We’re often asked, ‘Is the right thing to do for the business?’ People are very aware of margins and why we must get the quality right from the beginning,” Andi says.
Supply chain and staffing issues have made it more difficult for Fleetwood to hit its stated goal of hitting confirmed delivery dates at least 99 percent of the time. Andi says she’s worked with Human Resources to retain employees by providing better balance for employees through staggered shift times, seasonal hiring, and flexible scheduling. Says Andi, “Educational furniture orders peak in the summer, but summer on the shores of Lake Michigan is pretty special so we do everything we can to hit our schedule and limit weekend work.”
Although Andi says she is fortunate to have worked for leaders who’ve encouraged her and provided opportunities for growth, her advice to women looking to move into operations leadership is to take ownership of their own development. “You can’t always wait to be tapped, you have to speak up if you’re interested,” she says.
It comes as no surprise that Andi says her career success comes from building strong relationships. “I’ve always looked for other women who I can empower,” she says. “I want to show them that just about anything is possible.”